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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118163">Death is just the beginning</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyGhoulsTheBoysAreHere/pseuds/HeyGhoulsTheBoysAreHere'>HeyGhoulsTheBoysAreHere</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alive Marco, Annie is not Ok, Bertholdt and Marco are Cousins, Bertholdt is babey, Dark Marco, Eren and Levi are totally not sleeping together, Eren’s about to get murked, F/F, F/M, M/M, Marco is a Tybur, Marco is a sadistic bastard, Marco needs to be bitch slapped, Mentally unstable Reiner, Protective Levi, Sorta Happy Ending, Titan Shifter Marco, Totally not killing stalking, Unrequited Love, Warrior Marco, am i kicked out of the fandom yet, depressed Jean, he made our baby cry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 23:35:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,864</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyGhoulsTheBoysAreHere/pseuds/HeyGhoulsTheBoysAreHere</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if there was a fifth Warrior sent to Paradis?<br/>(I just wanted to write a dark Marco fic so enlighten me)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armin Arlert/Annie Leonhart, Jean Kirstein/Marco Bott, Krista Lenz | Historia Reiss/Ymir, Levi/Eren Yeager, Reiner Braun/Bertolt Hoover</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Death is just the beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Why</p><p>Why did Marco have to be behind them?</p><p>Why couldn’t he have just laughed it off and walked away?</p><p>Why did she have to take his gear off?</p><p>Why did they have to do this?</p><p> </p><p>Annie blinked back tears after the titan dropped what was left of Marco’s body. Bertholdt was staring in shock as he tried to keep himself from breaking down. Reiner couldn’t even speak after thinking out loud as to why Marco’s body was being devoured in front of them. He couldn’t get the sound of Marco’s ankles breaking out of his mind. A hand grabbing his shoulder jolted him out of his trance. “Reiner…” Bertholdt whispered.<br/>“What are you?”<br/>Reiner felt a lump growing in his throat.<br/>“I’m a Warrior…” he managed to rasp out.<br/>“We did what we had to.” Reiner said as he walked away<br/>“Now we still have a chance to finish the mission and go back home.” Bertholdt muttered as he followed Reiner. Annie didn’t even hear her partners walk away. Her eyes were glued to the rooftop they left Marco on. <br/>“Annie, come on.” Bertholdt whispered as he nudged her shoulder.<br/>Annie tore her eyes away from the roof and looked up at Bertholdt. He had a pained look on his face. He and Marco were friends and she could tell he had a hard time following Reiner’s orders. Bertholdt put a caring hand over her shoulder and led her away from the edge. While in his soldier persona, Reiner mistook Bertholdt’s caring demeanor towards Annie as romantic while in reality, Bertholdt had no interest in women and had been best friends with Annie since they were Warrior Candidates. The trio prepared to go their separate ways and go back to their positions in order to not arouse suspicion. <br/>“YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!”<br/>Annie whirled around and bolted to the edge of the roof with Bertholdt and Reiner close behind her. Her heart almost stopped when she saw a hand grasping the edge of the rooftop. The trio watched in horror as another hand came up and grabbed a panel of the roof and the owner of the hand began to pull themselves up.<br/>“Do you have any idea how much getting bitten in half hurts?!” Marco growled as more steam came off his face. There was no way. How could he be a Titan shifter? Could he be the founder? <br/>“W-what are you?” Bertholdt choked out as he backed away from Marco.  <br/>“I’m a Warrior.” Marco said as he stood up.<br/>“You’re lying.” Reiner said. “There were only four of us sent over to Paradis and only eight made it through.” <br/>“Think again.” Marco chuckled as he pulled something out of his jacket pocket with a newly regenerated hand and threw it at Reiner. <br/>Reiner’s eyes went wide when he saw what it was. It was a red Warrior armband. <br/>“Do you really think that Marley didn’t send someone to keep an eye on you morons?” Marco asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. <br/>“How did you get over here?” Annie asked.<br/>“You mean you really don’t remember me?” Marco asked as he feigned surprise. <br/>“After all we’ve been through?” <br/>Annie was sure she’d never seen Marco before they joined the Cadet Corps. <br/>“I feel like I’m forgetting something…” Marco said as he tapped his foot. Bertholdt and Annie gave Reiner a desperate look for answers. <br/>“Oh, that’s it!” Marco announced as he snapped his fingers with a wicked smile.<br/>In an instant, thousands of memories flooded the trio. <br/>They remembered.<br/>“Juno?” Bertholdt gaped as he stared at Marco.<br/>“Good to see ya, Minerva.” Marco smirked.<br/>Bertholdt’s legs trembled as he remembered the boy that they trained with during their childhood. There’s no way that anybody besides Juno would know his middle name. <br/>“You’re alive?!” Reiner shouted.<br/>“They told us that you died when they tried to give you your Titan!”<br/>“I lived, bitch.” Marco said.<br/>Annie fell to her knees. “How long have you been lying to us?” She cried. Marco rolled his eyes.<br/>“Quit your whining, Leonhart. Don’t pretend that you’re not doing the exact same thing to your little boy toy.”<br/>Annie’s eyes went wide. <br/>“Yeah, I know about your little crush on Arlert.” Marco said with disgust.<br/>“What would daddy think?” Marco sneered<br/>“And you!” Marco growled as he walked towards Reiner and grabbed his collar.<br/>“You act like the confident bastard we all know was Galliard while you pretend to be the perfect soldier when you smashed down the gate and brought hell on earth.” He hissed.<br/>“You think your precious Krista would give a damn about you when she finds out about the monster inside you?”<br/>Reiner was shocked that the man who was the goody goody of the 104th was this ruthless.<br/>“You’re no better.” Marco said as he turned his attention to the trembling ravenette on his knees next to Reiner.<br/>“Did you enjoy it?” Marco asked as he kneeled in front of Bertholdt.<br/>“Did you enjoy hearing them scream for mercy?”<br/>Marco was leaning towards Bertholdt so he could whisper into his ear.<br/>“Do you like killing, Bertholdt?” <br/>Tears were building up in Bertholdt’s eyes, threatening to break free any second now.<br/>“Was it fun to break down the wall? Must have been a piece of cake for your Titan.”<br/>Bertholdt prayed that Marco would stop before he lost his edge.<br/>“Do you even feel guilty? I bet you try but just can’t. Especially when Eren told you his story” <br/>Bertholdt covered his ears as tears began to flow.<br/>“You must have had a hell of a good time today.”<br/>Marco said as he stroked Bertholdt’s hair.<br/>“S-stop! Please!” Bertholdt said as he started sobbing uncontrollably.<br/>Marco firmly grabbed his hair and yanked his head up so he was staring Marco dead in the eyes.<br/>“YOU WANT ME TO STOP?!” Marco shouted with a manic look on his face before laughing.Bertholdt could see one of his eyes was now a sickening red and the flesh surrounding it looked like it was scarring. Bertholdt whimpered as tears slid down his cheeks while Marco laughed at him. <br/>“For someone so powerful, you really are pathetic.” Marco said as he shoved Bertholdt away from him. Bertholdt collapsed on his hands and knees in a fit of quiet sobs. Annie rushed over to her friend and tried to console him. Reiner looked like he was prepared to throw Marco off the roof for making Bertholdt break down.<br/>“Come on. We have work to do.” Marco said as he grabbed his ODM gear from next to Annie.<br/>“What?” Annie asked.<br/>Marco gave her an annoyed look. “Do you think I’m just gonna waltz back looking like this?” Marco asked as he pointed to the mangled flesh on his right side. <br/>“And besides, I have a little plan in the case I have to fake my death at some point.”<br/>“Fake your death?” Reiner asked.<br/>Marco shrugged. “It’s either that or go back to the goody goody ‘My body belongs to the king’ charade. And honestly, I’d rather die for real than be that boot-licker again.” Marco said with a disgusted look on his face. <br/>“Am I going to do this by myself or are you half-assed excuses for Warriors going to follow my orders?” Marco asked as he looked at the trio over his shoulder. <br/>“Whatever you say, Tybur.” Reiner sneered</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This was hell. Why couldn’t the Colossal Titan have kicked the wall in tomorrow? Artemus had one more day until he could go to the capital. His Elder brother was a high ranking Military Police Officer and had given him a guaranteed spot. But then the goddamn wall had to be breached. <br/>Wonderful.<br/>Artemus had already lost half of his squad to titans. It was a miracle he lasted this long. But then some berserker Titan had started going at its own kind. But the kicker was that the titan was some hot head from the top ten. It was all so confusing. Hopefully his friends in other squads were okay. They were all he had other than his brother. Artemus’ train of thought was derailed when something big slammed into his back. It was almost like a Titan slapped him out of the sky. Artemus tried to stay steady but failed as he crash landed onto a rooftop. Artemus tried to get up to see what hit him when he felt something heavy land on his knees. Artemus screamed in pain as he felt his kneecaps shatter. What the hell was that?! Artemus grasped one of his swords and turned around to see a group of cadets standing above him. One of them looked like a carbon copy of him, besides the spray of freckles on his face. Artemus realized that they were from the top ten too. <br/>“Guys! Help me!” I can’t walk!”<br/>The guy with freckles smiled.<br/>Artemus heard thundering footsteps behind him.<br/>A titan was coming.<br/>“There’s a Titan coming! Please! You gotta help me!”<br/>The freckled guy nodded at the tallest guy in the group who walked towards him a blank look on his face. He kneeled down in front of him. Why was he taking so long?<br/>“I’m sorry.” He whispered as he started to undo his ODM straps.<br/>“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Artemus screamed as he hopelessly tried to fight. Another guy came up and grabbed his gear after the tall guy undid all his straps. The group quickly flew off the roof to the rooftop above them.<br/>“It’s nothing personal. Just business.” The freckled guy said with a nasty grin before flying off to join the rest of the group. Artemus was shaking in fear as he felt a large hand tightly grab him and lift him up.<br/>“HELP ME! SOMEBODY, PLEASE!” <br/>His screams did nothing to stop the Titan from biting into his right side.</p><p> </p><p>Jean felt like the world was crumbling around him when he saw a familiar face, well half of one. <br/>It had been two days since Eren’s Titan sealed up Wall Rose. Most of the cadets that survived were out on the streets trying to identify the dead. The one face he didn’t expect to see was his best friend’s<br/>“M-Marco?” Jean managed to choke out.<br/>This couldn’t be happening. Marco promised him they’d make it out and live in the interior together. He couldn’t be dead. Jean didn’t even hear the medic come up behind him.<br/>“Cadet, do you know his name?”<br/>There had to be a mistake. Marco was fine. He’d have that stupid grin on his face and they’d joke about Jean discovering his twin later on.<br/>“I…. wasn’t gonna look… but.”<br/>“Trainee do you understand? This is no time to mourn your comrades. We have to work quickly to prevent the spread of disease.”<br/>Jean swallowed<br/>“His name is Marco Bott… Commander of the 19th Squad… 104th training corps…”<br/>The medic wrote something down on her clipboard. “Bott, got it. Good you know his name.” <br/>As Jean walked away he couldn’t stop thinking of all the times they had together. <br/>Why couldn’t the wall have been kicked in tomorrow?</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>F in the chat for my boy Artemus. He deserved better and so did his kneecaps</p></blockquote></div></div>
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